Amnesty International Report 1994 - Mozambique

A year of peace, following the October 1992 agreement to end the 16-year civil war, brought a great improvement in the human rights situation. Nevertheless, there were reports of security personnel causing deaths which may have been extrajudicial executions: it was not clear whether any of the deaths were properly investigated. The armed opposition detained people in violation of the peace agreement and failed to account for others whom it had detained before October 1992. It was also reported to have summarily executed one of its own members. Both President Joaquim Chissano and Afonso Dhlakama, leader of the armed opposition Resistência Nacional Moçambicana (RENAMO), Mozambique National Resistance, repeatedly affirmed their commitment to peace, despite violations of the peace agreement which was monitored by unomoz, the UN Operation in Mozambique, (see Amnesty International Report 1993). There was greater freedom of movement, although restrictions continued in RENAMO-controlled areas. Roads were repaired and mines removed, facilitating the distribution of food and seeds. Thousands of refugees were repatriated from neighbouring countries under the protection of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: thousands more returned spontaneously. There were various initiatives to increase awareness of civil and political rights. A major set-back was the delay in demobilizing the two armies and various paramilitary forces, which should have been completed by April, but was delayed until late November. There were several demonstrations by government soldiers, some involving violence, in support of pay demands. Unemployed former soldiers and deserters from both sides' armies and paramilitary groups turned to armed banditry, joining others who had done so in previous years. Deep distrust between the government and RENAMO led to frequent disputes. From March to June RENAMO boycotted meetings of the commissions set up to implement the peace agreement. Each side accused the other of setting up paramilitary groups which could be used to overturn the peace process or election results. The government transferred thousands of former soldiers into a new paramilitary police unit and there were allegations that RENAMO had set up a secret battalion. However, by October, after meetings between President Chissano and Afonso Dhlakama and a visit by UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a new timetable was agreed for demobilization and the formation of a unified army in time for elections in October 1994 (originally elections had been set for October 1993). Agreement was also reached on extending state administration to RENAMO-controlled areas and on the composition of the electoral commission and commissions to monitor the police and security services. The parties also assented to a UN proposal for the deployment of 128 UN civilian police monitors: about half were deployed by the end of the year. In July Mozambique acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its Second Optional Protocol, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty (Mozambique had abolished capital punishment in 1990). Under the terms of the peace agreement the government had released all political prisoners in 1992 (see Amnesty International Report 1993). There were few reports of new political arrests. RENAMO alleged that government forces arrested two of its members in Tete province in July. These and other violations of the agreement were investigated by the Cease-Fire Commission. There were several reports of deaths in custody, or during security operations, which may have been extrajudicial executions. Several people were reportedly killed and at least one was feared to have "disappeared" after the government suppressed a mutiny by members of the Presidential Guard in late March. The guards had reportedly kidnapped a senior officer to back their demands for better pay and conditions. Unofficial sources said that the day after the guards had been confined to their barracks at Magoanine, outside Maputo, the capital, commandos entered the barracks, shooting randomly, wounding some guards and killing others, including Agostinho Pedro from Nampula province. Hundreds of guards were reportedly arrested and held for about a month before being released and sent to their home towns or villages. Of about 200 held in the Machava Civil Prison, Maputo, at least three were said to have received no treatment for bullet wounds. Six others, all suspected leaders of the mutiny, were reportedly confined in one cell with their hands bound except at meal times. One of these, Alberto Gomes, was reported to have been whipped. He was subsequently removed from the prison and apparently "disappeared". Former soldiers demanded a commission of inquiry to investigate the March incident which, they claimed, resulted in the death or "disappearance" of several, possibly over 30, guards. No such inquiry took place before the end of the year. RENAMO alleged that Ossufo Buanamassari died in June on Mozambique Island, Nampula province, after police arrested and beat him for failing to show his identity card. The Cease-Fire Commission investigated the incident and ordered that the case be submitted to the commission monitoring the police, but this did not begin work until December 1993. Juma Francisco Maulane, who had been convicted of burglary, died of bullet wounds in Maputo Central Prison in August. Initially, the authorities claimed that he had committed suicide in his cell: subsequently, they said he had been shot while trying to escape. No judicial inquiry appeared to have been carried out to establish the circumstances of his death. Reports of abuses by RENAMO included the failure to account for people detained by its forces before the peace agreement entered into force and the apparent deliberate killing of one of its own officers. The peace agreement called for the release of prisoners by both sides, but RENAMO freed none, maintaining that those it had captured were living freely in RENAMO-controlled areas. Among those missing was Sandra Francisco Galego, who was abducted in Tete province in 1986 when she was 14 years old. In May the family of Tiago Salgado, a former government soldier who had joined RENAMO in 1991, accused RENAMO of deliberately and arbitrarily killing him earlier in 1993. In July RENAMO confirmed the death: it said that Tiago Salgado had been arrested on suspicion of spying for the government and was killed when trying to escape. RENAMO also detained some 50 people in June and July in an apparent attempt to back its claim that the peace accords allowed it, and not the government, to administer RENAMO-controlled areas. RENAMO accused the detainees of hunting or cutting wood without obtaining RENAMO's permission. Over 20 people, including Aurelio Manhiça, a National Assembly deputy, and Luis Mondlane, a Presbyterian minister, were held in Salamanga, south of Maputo, and a similar number of woodcutters were detained in Manica and Sofala provinces. The detainees were released in August. Amnesty International wrote to representatives of the government, RENAMO and the UN, and to others involved in the peace process, to propose ways of strengthening human rights protection. It made inquiries and expressed concern about reports of extrajudicial executions by government forces and urged that human rights education be included in training courses for the unified army. It also informed RENAMO of its concerns about captives held by RENAMO.